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Grosmark et al. use simultaneous calcium imaging and electrophysiology to track the formation and long-term evolution of hippocampal memory traces in mice and uncover a role for post-learning reactivation in the formation of spatially uniform cognitive maps.
By manipulating the rhythmicity of neural activity in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, Quirk et al. show that memory is impaired by aberrant oscillatory activity during the encoding phase, but not during retention or retrieval phases.
Goltstein et al. investigate the role of mouse visual cortical areas in information-integration category learning. They report widespread changes in neuronal response properties, most prominently in a higher visual area, the postrhinal cortex.
Cognitive maps are theorized to enable generalizing experiences in new situations. Park et al. show that non-spatial experiences sampled piecemeal are integrated into a two-dimensional cognitive map of social hierarchy, and a grid code is used for novel inferences.
This paper identified >500 genetic loci associated with behaviors and disorders related to self-regulation, including addiction and child behavior problems. The resulting genetic risk scores predict several behavioral, medical and social outcomes.
Ma et al. show that the PVT biases the selection of passive and active defensive behaviors via mostly segregated projections to the CeA and the NAc. Their results update current views on the role of the midline thalamus in fear-related behaviors.
Kim et al. found that visual inputs trigger gated feedforward inhibition of ACC neurons, which disinhibits striatal motor neurons and initiates precise responses in mice performing a visual Go/No-go task.
Using a human forebrain organoid model of fragile X syndrome, Kang et al. reveal a critical role of FMRP in human brain development and identify a large number of human-specific mRNAs that could be regulated by FMRP.
Placental dysfunction has been implicated in abnormal neurodevelopment. Vacher et al. found that loss of a neuroactive hormone from the placenta alters brain development in a regional and sex-linked manner, resulting in autism-like behaviors in male offspring.
Al-Hasani, Gowrishankar et al. show that long-range GABAergic projections from the ventral tegmental area to the ventral nucleus accumbens shell inhibit cholinergic activity to promote reward reinforcement.
Grieves et al. show that when rats explore a 3D space, grid cells in the entorhinal cortex exchange their usual spatially regular firing patterns for more irregular ones, suggesting that 3D space is mapped differently than previously thought.
Li et al. develop neural fragility, a networked dynamic system biomarker, for localizing seizures in patients with epilepsy and find that it is more robust compared to traditional features that clinicians and researchers look at in a 91-patient study.
The authors utilize information theory to show that four of the output pathways in the primate retina encode predictive information about visual motion. They further show the nonlinear circuit mechanisms that contribute to this computation.
Shamash et al. examine how mice learn to get past an obstacle blocking their path to a goal. They found that mice instinctively adopt a subgoal memory strategy, which combines elements from both habitual learning and the cognitive map theory.
Mallard et al. study the often overlooked X-chromosome’s influences on the human brain. They find that X-chromosome influences on cortical surface area are sex biased and concentrated in specific cortical systems.
By recording and manipulating neural activity in rats performing a skilled behavior, the authors show that the basal ganglia control the detailed kinematics of learned skills and can do so independently of the motor cortex.
The skull dura contains B cells and B lineage precursors under homeostatic conditions. These cells are long-term tissue resident and mature upon neuroinflammation. This identifies the dura as a site of B cell residence and potentially development.
Lee et al. show that in male Shank3-mutant mice, mPFC neurons are impaired in encoding of social agency. Shank3 reexpression in mPFC restored this ability in real time, and this was accompanied by rescue of normal social behavior.
In the nucleus, specific stretches of DNA are ‘anchored’ to distinct membrane-less compartments that harbor gene regulatory function. Using GO-CaRT, the authors discovered unique aspects of genome architecture in neural precursors in vivo, providing new insights into brain development and disease.